Mark tried everything he could think of. Creating cubes of water, trying to alter its density, creating vibrating water.

In short, the answer was no. He could not make ice.

Mark floated dimly above a particularly wet patch of dirt. He was able to create water in squares and circles, and rivers, and waterfalls, but not as ice. It served as a good, if temporary, distraction from the rest of his work.

He looked back at the farm he had made; an uneven layout of sections of dirt divided by sharp, wooden fence posts. Mushrooms grew and twisted inside of them. Next up, one of the most important parts of farming… good tools.

Compressed mushroom wood probably wouldn’t be a good idea, since they were carving into mushroom itself, and they didn’t have enough metal to make a whole tool. Mark’s plan would consume most of their mana, but it wasn’t as if he was about to ask Alverost for permission… this was important.

So he created a scythe with a fungiwood handle, and made just the edge of the blade out of metal. It was a clean tool, honed to a fine point on the scythe, the sleek, black metal contrasting with the whitish fungiwood.

Then he made four more. He could theoretically produce food on a whim for the Kobolds— presuming he had mana. But what if, for some reason, he went unconscious again? And he couldn’t be everywhere at once, especially if their little colony’s population grew. So he had to teach them to farm for themselves.

Mark did the best impression of pursing his lips that a dungeoncore could, searching his insides for Mala. Mark thought that he was bad at naming things, but Alverost’s penchant proved it could outstrip his own, time and time again. “Mala. Come here.” Mala hesitated, looking up from where he was pulling a baby centipede off of a wall. It was trying to climb up and out of the courtyard, and writhing in Mala’s hand, who was clearly trying to be gentle with it.

The centipede chose that moment of distraction to nibble at Mala’s hand, causing him to drop it. The Juvenile centipede, a not-fully-adult version of the insect, picked up the smaller one with its mandibles, which Mark made a note of. Though they appeared to be insects, they were almost acting more like cats; perhaps the dead dungeon had changed their instincts? It made sense if he labeled them as food.

“Come here.” Mark instructed, and Mala hurried to comply, running through the courtyard and outside of it as fast as his legs could carry him. He stopped in awe of the construction of the gigantic fence posts that surrounded the area. He began to explore the area at a sedate pace, slowly walking through the yard along the fenceline.

He reached up and touched one. The fence posts were wide enough to allow him to reach an arm through, but not to step through them, which reminded Mark that he still needed to make a gate somewhere.

Not that they would hold against much, being made of fungiwood instead of stone.

Mark directed Mala through the farm, towards the set of tools he had made. It didn’t require much talking, Mark able to simply light a path in Mala’s vision, who was still mesmerized by the fence that popped into existence while he was still inside herding the little insects.

Mark guided Mala to the tools, who marveled at them, and instructed him to cut down any mushroom that grew to the height of a Kobold and bring it back inside to store. He would have to make a pantry.

But before that, Mark pivoted back to the meeting between Axel and Valleria, finding the simple diagram on a pedestal he had left behind, elevated completely. Valleria was pouring over it, carving a path into the soft stone that marked the trail of a twisting and turning river.

“—and this river is the one we normally dredge. We don’t often see any metal in it though, let alone silver…” She pointed to where the two tributaries bisected. “This is the Dredge-House of Clan Longtail. Its the very border of Clan territory, and most of the Clans share some territory in this area. It would be one of the areas guarded at all times. The ceiling is high here.” Valleria leaned back, pacing around the pedestal.

The layout of the three dimensional map they were creating was rough, undulating in waves almost like dunes, the ground rising and falling throughout the area. The pedestal had grown wider, too, to show more information as Alverost worked it. Valleria pointed to the other side of the river. “Upstream of it is the Bighorn Dredge-House. They often contest what Treasures and swell-fish are found in the rivers there… Thats pretty much every building of strategic importance to the clan. The farms, the dredge, warehouse and hoard… I don’t know the locations of the other clans.” Valleria stepped back, looking to the gem at the back of the room. She seemed to measure the dungeoncore with her eyes. “What do you think?”

“It seems like the most sure way forward.” Alverost replied. “Its unlikely we will find any silver in this dingy… pit… that you dump your trash into.”

“Their trash?” Mark asked.

Valeria's eyes flicked between the map Alverost had made and the dungeon stone. “There are dozens of holes like the one I was flung into, leading down into the dark. More than one of them have underground waterways and rivers, and the clans dispose of their… waste… down these holes. Like the one I was likely flung into. But—“

“There is no water here.” Alverost continued. “Which means that there may be other sub chambers like the one we are in, and it might be much smaller than it appears. Not only that but… we’re at least two levels below the surface.”

“So we expand up, get the silver, and contact your family.” Mark did the best impression of smiling that a dungeon core could.

“Axel. Show Valleria to one of the open rooms. Valleria… you can stay here. We’ll most likely need to use you to negotiate with the Kobold clans of the Rot-City. Our own Kobolds haven’t quite developed the necessary… diplomatic touch.”

Valleria looked between Axel and the dungeoncore. “Alright,” she said, as Axel lead her from the room.

A few moments passed in silence.

“Did you see how different she is from our Kobolds?” Mark asked, breaking the silence first. They had danced away from the topic while she was present.

“Yes. She’s taller. Stronger. I plan on updating Axel as soon as he is done with her.” Alverost answered offhand.

“Dude, she is super inbred. I bget all of the Kobolds above us are at least cousins.”

“Ah yes. I also saw that. In her DNA.”

“You totally can’t see DNA, can you? You see something else in the creator pane?”

“Of course I can see the DNA. I am a master sorcerer.” Alverost paused. There was a silence as Mark waited, disbelieving. “But what do you think? Should we not use her structure as a template?”

“There are definite improvements there. Her metabolism is faster. Her muscle structure is better… let me selectively change Silver. Then you can base Axel’s changes on Silver.”

“That sounds like a good idea. That way, if anything goes wrong, it will be Silver that explodes.”

“No one is going to explode.” Mark replied.

“If you say so.”